I bet she wishes she would have held out for more money instead of selling the movie rights on the first Lord of the Rings err Harry Potter movies. Those films made BILLIONS at the box office and she was only paid a few million dollars err Euros.

The good news is she was smart enough to keep her book ownership rights AND she kept writing. She still got paid who knows how many millions in royalties for this insanely popular book series. Then she got more money from the movie sequels. Just think it all started with a manual type writer.

In my opinion George Lucas is the biggest idiot of the 21st Century for selling LucasFilms which includes Star Wars and the Indiana Jones series for a measly $4 Billion dollars. He should have kept ownership and licensed Star Wars to whoever wanted to PAY to use it like Bill Gates did.

Just watch, Disney will make that $4 Billion back so fast it will make your head spin. George Lucas could have kept the franchise and made big bucks for years to come and even then his family heirs could have continued to collect royalty checks.

WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH GETTING PAID TO PUBLISH YOUR OWN BOOK?

You need to know that your potential as a creator is unlimited and you need to understand there is real value in the content that you OWN.

VALUE > MONEY, the more valuable whatever it is you create the more money you can collect from it.

How to get paid to write and publish your own book without selling out:

#1 – STOP WRITING ARTICLES START WRITING CHAPTERS.

I got this idea from Pat Flynn’s latest book Let Go which is not only a new book but also a brand new publishing format.

Each chapter is limited to about 1000 words of text and also includes other rich media such as graphics, images, audio, and video just like an article on a blog. There’s also a social media tie in to it as well, just like an article on a blog.

Remember write chapters not articles, use this strategy to filter out your good chapters from the bad as you develop your book.

The good ones you’ll get paid for the bad ones you can just use for free promotion.

I’m sure many of you reading this are thinking that in order to get paid as a writer you have to convince some fancy pants editor or agent or publisher somewhere to first read and then like your finished book first.

NO

If you are asking an editor to publish your book you could be doing it the hard way.

Pat Flynn was asked to write his latest book by the publisher not the other way around.

Why?

Oh, I don’t know maybe it’s the 70,000+ subscribers that follow his blog? One never can know for sure I’d have to ask him.

Maybe my buddy Wade Harman can find out. Hey Wade any chance you could interrogate Pat Flynn on WHY he thinks SNIPPET asked him to write this book in your upcoming special podcast interview?Ha haaaaaaaaa! Just joking man, but it would be hilarious if you randomly went all serious and started grilling him like, “WHY, Huh!? I WANT ANSWERS, NOW! WHY DO YOU THINK THEY APPROACHED YOU, I’M NOT MESSING AROUND HERE BROTHER!” (With the Hulk Hogan voice) lol!

#3 – STAY ON TOPIC UNTIL YOU HAVE A COMPLETED YOUR BOOK.

Nobody’s reading ALL your stuff except YOU.

That’s the truth.

The sad truth is after you write enough articles even you don’t remember what you wrote <SMILE>.

Another reality is your most loyal followers are only reading SOME of your articles and even when they share your stuff on social media they still haven’t read it.

They’re like the congressmen signing bills that THEY also haven’t read.

Maybe it’s human nature like Michael Jackson said?

This creates an opportunity for you to use strategy to get paid as you put together your finished book.

You don’t need to worry about people remembering your content, chances are the people who read your book haven’t read your guest post or if they have they forgot too, just like you.

As you go through the process of selecting your best chapters and getting paid it’s important that you choose a topic that you will have no problem writing a TON about.

If you are writing about The history of the letter R in colloquial American pronunciation then you need to make sure that you can come up with enough material without having to resort to filler content or “mailing it in”.

Think instead of how a comic goes out on the road 4 or 5 nights a week developing new material.

They get instant feedback from the small clubs so they KNOW what people like, THEN they use the best PROVEN jokes on their HBO special.

It’s all about strategy.

25 chapters is a good sized book 50 chapters is as long as any book should ever be.

If you are only publishing the articles err chapters that you got paid to write as guest posts then you could have earned 25 x’s $50 per guest post = $1250 to write your own book.

What's up! I'm Darnell the founder of Your Online Biz.
I believe "We come from absolute greatness. Accomplishing the extraordinary is the least that we should expect from ourselves."
In 2012 I launched TruckLicense.net which redefined how to get a CDL without expensive trucking school.
I also created the #IBCT - International Blogger Championship Tournament which features the top 64 blogs worldwide in a competitive comparative analysis.
When you support me you help #PayItForward as I contribute 10% of my online income to help children in need.

16 comments on “How to Get Paid to Write and Publish Your own Book.”

I appreciated your honest and humorous insights. As a fresh beginner, I have learned more from your site than I have from the 50+ blogs i”ve read on this topic. I like the fact that you don’t just talk about freelance writing, but remind everyone that we are our own business and that freelance writing should just be a part of it. Once again, You are truly appreciated!

I’m challenging a statement a few others have made; namely, that writing is all about creativity. It may be true, in part, if you’re talking about fiction. But skilled writing techniques,personal insight, life experience,and matching your message to the “site” are even more important. This comes from a woman who is at heart a story teller, launching her fiction career at 72, and planning to turn it into retirement income. I’ve been publishing since 1969 – articles; poems; five books – and am still as poor as the proverbial church mouse. How can I turn what I have already published into more revenue? Maybe the more fundamental question is how can I get KNOWN? My work is good – I have medals to prove it. How can guest blogging and putting up my own blog (still in progress) accomplish my goal? Writing – GOOD writing – is a lot more than just creativity! It is passion, skill and the ability pop back up every time a rejection comes your way. Good writers aren’t punching bunnies (though we sometimes feel like it) We are tough and we don’t stay down because we have a solid base (self-belief) that pops us up after each blow. What think you, Darnell?

A – If I had old books that I published years ago then I would blog about whatever the point of the book was. If the book was a romantic fiction then I would blog about the topics that people who read romances novels like to read. If I wrote an old book that was a how-to or instructional then I would blog about every single step of the process in exhausting detail and include interesting tidbits that you couldn’t find anywhere else like the origin of the materials or how the raw ingredients are processed.

For example if I wrote an old southern cookbook then I would create a blog about southern cooking and use the old book I wrote as a source of content for the blog. I would prepare a meal each week from the cookbook and upload eye catching photos and even videos of the process step by step to the blog. I would monetize the blog by using pay per click systems like adsense or by self-publishing a “re-released” and updated version of the old cookbook. I would promote my new version of my old book on the blog prominently. I would also focus on building an email list by offering something to my audience extremely useful in exchange for subscribing like a free 30 minute youtube video presentation or something.

Q – Maybe the more fundamental question is how can I get KNOWN?

A – Set up your blog and use the strategy above.
Write posts for money everyday.
If they get published you get paid, HurraaY!
If they don’t published submit them as guest posts, you get noticed.
Keep doing this consistently and your social media followers and blog readers will grow consistently.

Q – How can guest blogging and putting up my own blog (still in progress) accomplish my goal?

In a number of ways, here’s two:
1. It will document YOU and build credibility. A blog is a great place to show off all that you have done like the awards that you have received for writing and all the books and papers that you have published.

2. Potential clients will take you more seriously if you have your own blog. The more you want out of something the more you should put into it. The internet is no different than any other industry the businesses with websites attract more customers than those without one. As a freelance write YOU are your online business without a website you don’t have a “store” to open.

Q – What think you, Darnell?

A – Me think me that you will be very successful if you continue on your path and fail to quit. You’re right it can be difficult but if you’re willing to make adjustments then you will see progress and what was difficult will start to ease. Just remember when you get stuck or lost it’s always better to admit it and get help earlier than later.Darnell Jackson recently posted…The 13 Most Important Posts of 2013 for Your Online Business

This is such a great post! Thank you very much for sharing this. I believe that in order for you to write, you need to have a creative mind Writing is all about creativity. And if you have a talent in writing, better share it.

Hi Darnell, Great tips..Writing is all about creativity and if you are sure that you’ve a creative head you can write masterpieces and make millions out of it.BTW its Harry Potter series that Rowling wrote not LOTR.

Good point on Problogger’s ebook sales. Using your blog as a platform to sell to your readers is often overlooked. People want traffic for traffic’s sake, but don’t think how they’re going to use the traffic…Shaun Hoobler recently posted…buy penny stocks